Four RWTH Scholars Gain Admission to the ‘Junges Kolleg’ for Academic Excellence
Junior Professor Lisa Spantig, Dr. Maike Dohrn, Dr. Jan Moritz Joseph, and Dr. Julia Exarchos have been inducted into the Junges Kolleg of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
This year, the Academy is accepting a total of 19 new scholarship holders into its Junges Kolleg. Acceptance to the Academy is one of the most valuable academic honors in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Members participate in the activities of the Academy and receive an annual stipend of 10,000 Euros.
Since 2006, the academy has been promoting outstanding early-career researchers in NRW with the Junges Kolleg and now has around 170 active, affiliated, and former scholarship recipients. A doctoral degree as well as exceptional academic and research achievements at one of the NRW universities or research institutions are among the prerequisites for election into the College. At the time of admission, members may not be older than 36 years. Currently, seven researchers in the Junges Kolleg are from RWTH Aachen University.
Dr. Lisa Spantig is Assistant Professor of Experimental Economics and conducts research in the field of financial inclusion, which explores the accessibility of financial services. Using a combination of survey data, weather data, administrative data, and decision-making experiments, this area of research investigates how financial services can also be provided to poorer sections of the population, particularly in countries of the Global South, and how shocks such as extreme weather events or pandemic situations can be better managed.
Dr. Maike Dohrn, Chair of Neurology at RWTH, has a research focus on hereditary neuropathies, diseases of the peripheral nerves that do not have a traumatic cause. Understanding the causes of nerve damage is crucial to the development of treatments. Although more than a hundred genes are known to cause the associated symptoms, their genetic causes are still unknown for many of those affected. As part of an international network, Dohrn conducts research into the causes of hereditary neuropathies and into identifying their progression markers. Dohrn has been working as an assistant physician in the Department of Neurology at RWTH Aachen University Hospital since 2015.
Dr. Jan Moritz Joseph from the Institute for Communication Technologies and Embedded Systems is researching energy-efficient methods for the design and use of AI in embedded systems. Joseph is particularly interested in neuromorphic hardware. Traditionally, AI applications are run on systems in which processing and storage are separated, which limits performance. Neuromorphic systems combine both units in a new component and are therefore more energy-efficient. Jan Moritz Joseph and his team are designing an integrated system for the simultaneous development of hardware and software. He and his team received RWTH’s Innovation Award 2022 for their hardware and software development systems.
Dr. Julia Exarchos from the Cultures of Knowledge in the Middle Ages Teaching and Research Area and her junior research group are investigating the economic and social integration of the lower working classes in late medieval Europe and exploring the effects that transformation processes initiated by technical innovations and other dynamics such as economic crises and fluctuations, epidemics, natural disasters and wars had on these groups. Since 2021, she has been leading her own junior research group, funded by a Junior Principal Investigator Fellowship (JPI) from RWTH Aachen University.